1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to telecommunication technologies, and in particular, to correlating signaling traffic for service sessions in packet service networks.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recent advances in telecommunication technologies have resulted in a variety of new service offerings. For example, many service providers now offer services over packet-based networks. An example of a new packet based service is Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service. The wireless sector in particular has experienced a rapid increase in service offerings. For example, many wireless service providers now offer VoIP calling, push-to-talk (PTT) service, Internet browsing, data services, and video services, along with traditional voice services. Wireless service providers provide these services using various technologies, such as code division multiple access (CDMA), evolution data only (EVDO), and wireless fidelity (WiFi).
While these new technologies have enhanced the user experience, they have also introduced several new challenges for wireless carriers to overcome. For example, PTT service, which is also sometimes referred to as press-to-talk, is popular among groups of users, such as construction crews and police forces. However, a PTT session failure affects an entire group of users rather than just two users, as is the case during a traditional voice conversation. It is therefore important to service providers to have the ability to trouble shoot an entire PTT session experience.
In the past, trouble shooting session experiences involved monitoring the signaling channels of circuit switched networks. Circuit switched networks have traditionally separated bearer traffic from signaling traffic. For example, Signaling System No. 7 is a signaling protocol whereby signaling traffic is carried over channels distinct from the channels that carry user traffic. In contrast, packet-based networks carry bearer traffic and signaling traffic over the same channels. Thus, it is difficult to trouble shoot session experiences for new services that are provided over new access technologies because the signaling traffic travels across distributed packet channels rather than within a dedicated signaling system.
In one solution in the prior art, service providers place in-band signaling monitoring systems in each region of their networks to monitor traffic for signaling traffic. For example, a network could be logically divided based on geographic boundaries. Each geographic region would therefore have an in-band signaling monitoring system. During a PTT session, several users from several distinct network regions communicate via the network. Signaling is exchanged across the network for call setup and teardown, as well as other purposes. The in-band signaling monitoring systems capture and store the signaling traffic for later analysis.
Assuming a PTT session failure occurs at some point in the session, it would be desirable for the service provider to inquire as to the source of the failure. A technician would be required to query each in-band signaling monitoring system in the entire network. In addition, the technician would be required to intuitively or manually correlate the query responses. Unfortunately, service providers in the prior art do not have the ability to centrally query the various distinct in-band signaling monitoring systems to gather data related to the failed PTT service sessions. Instead, the amount of raw data included in the query responses could overwhelm any attempt by a technician to efficiently and quickly discover the source of the session failure.